Massachusetts Genealogy, With a Focus on Mayflower Families & Other Early Settlers of Plymouth & Barnstable Counties

Welcome! I really enjoy exchanging information with people and hope this blog will help with that. I am not an expert and I consider most of my research as a work in progress. Some of the surnames I'm researching:

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Nicholas Snow and Constance Hopkins were married
by 1627 in Plymouth, Mass. Nicholasmay be the Nicholas Snow
baptized 25 Jan 1599, St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, London, son of Nicholas Snow of
Hoxton, Middlesex.

Nicholas came to Plymouth in
1623 on board the ship Anne.

Constance Hopkins was baptized
at Hursley, Hampshire, England 11 May 1606, the daughter of Stephen Hopkins. I wrote about Stephen Hopkins here. Constance came to Plymouth on the Mayflower with her father, stepmother
Elizabeth, her brother Giles and half-sister Damaris. Her half-brother Oceanus
was born on the voyage. She is sometimes called Constant or Constanta in
records.

Constance Hopkins Snow beaver hat at Pilgrim Hall

Nicholas was a carpenter by
trade (his inventory included carpenter and coopers tools). He was made freeman
at Plymouth 1633. He was named in 1634 to lay out highways at Plymouth, and he
served there as an arbitrator, surveyor of highways and on various juries.

As an aside, I recently toured the Harlow Old Fort House in Plymouth, and the docent gave a nice description/demo of the job of a 17th century cooper.

By 1645 Nicholas and Constance
had settled at Eastham where he served as Town Clerk, selectman, deputy, constable,
highway surveyor, excise collector, and on various court committees. He was among the
first seven English settlers there.

In the 1627 Plymouth Cattle
division "Nickolas Snow" and Constance Snow were the sixth and seventh persons
in the seventh company (headed by Stephen Hopkins).

On 6 July 1638 Nicholas Snow
acknowledged that he sold to Samuell Eddy his house and garden in Plymouth where
he "now dwelleth."

Nicholas was granted ten acres
meadow in the South Meadows 2 Nov 1640.

About March 1645/6 Nicholas
Snow sold his house and buildings and upland, with two acres of meadow at High
Pines and ten acres of upland meadow at Colebrook meadows, totalling 52 acres to
Thomas Morton. On 10 March 1645(/6) Nicholas Snow sold one acre to Nathaniel
Morton.

In an account of liquors
brought into Eastham, 28 Nov 1664, Nicholas Snow was responsible for one and a
half gallons of liquor.

On 15 June 1653 Giles Hopkins
and Nicholas laid out 20 acres of meadow for Eastham settlers. Nicholas received
two acres. He held the lot until his death in 1676, then it passed to sons Mark
and Joseph, called his "great lott.”

Children:

Mark married Anna Pierce and
Jane Prence

Mary married Thomas Paine

Sarah married William
Walker

Joseph married Mary
____

Stephen married Susannah Deane
and Mary Cottle

John married Mary
Smalley

Elizabeth married Thomas
Rogers

Jabez married Elizabeth
Smith

Ruth married John Cole

Plus three whose names are
unknown.

Last three may be sons who
predeceased their father without issue, thus not mentioned in his will, or may
be daughters whom he did not call by name in will. William Bradford's 1651
acccount said Constance (he called her Constanta) had 12 children, all living.

I descend through their son
John. I also have a possible line through their son Joseph, but it would be
difficult to prove. I found out about this line through the Nickerson Family
Association, but it is not included in the Hopkins “Silver Book.”

Nicholas Snow died at Eastham
15 November 1676.

His wife Constant and sons Mark
and John administered his estate. Will dated 14 November 1676. Witnessed by
Samuell Treate and Thomas Paine Sr. Asked Deacon Samuel Freeman and John Mayo to
oversee. He left son Mark 20 acres upland at Namskekitt where his house now
stands, 2 acres of meadow, broken marsh there, two thirds of his great lot at
Satuckett lying next to the Indian's Ground, and what else he can purchase from
the Indians there. To son Joseph gave other third part of great lot and 2 1\2
acres of meadow at Namscekett next to William Twinings. To son Steven 20 acres
on southside of great lot at Pochett, 10 acres of little lot at Satuckett
between Daniel Cole and Edward Bangs' land by the side of a litte pond, 1 1/2
acres of meadow between Thomas Williams' and Samuel Freeman's land and part of
his meadow at the great meadow that is between Josiah Cooke's and the
Eelcreek.

To son John all land at Paomett
and all rights and titles there, including meadow and upland.

To son Jabez all land lying
between Nicholas' house and son Thomas Paines' house and 7 acres at the Bass
Pond between Daniel Cole and Wm Browne's and half acre of marsh and 6 acres
upland at Herring Pond and 1 1/2 acres of meadow at Silver Spring near Wm
Walkers, and adjacent upland near Ephraime Doane and part of Nicholas' house
that he now lives in. Also 2 acres of meadow at the Great Meadow between Eel
Creek and Joseph Hardings and 4 acres meadow at Billignsgate and meadow about
his house.

To loving wife Constant all
stock of cattle, sheep, horses, swine, to support her, as well as all the
moveable goods, which should be divided among all the children at her decease.
Also part of house she now dwells in, which will go to Jabez at her death. Also
10 acres of upland at Pochett to leave to son Steven and 20 on Billingsgate
Island, to leave to son Jabez.

He gave to Church of Eastham
for the furniture of the Table of The Lord, with pewter or other nessesaries, 10
shillings after wife's death.

23 comments:

Oh my word I am totally gobsmacked (hope you get the meaning!) Have just stumbled across your blog, as I was vaguely meandering the Ancestry website, and something made me dig into SNOW, Catherine Snow was my father's mother.

I had no idea at all that her fairly nearby generation ancestors came from the US, so I was intruiged!

So I have just learnt about Nicholas and Constance on various forums and websites, and was already blown away by the whole Mayflower thing (was born in Southampton, so the Mayflower is important in our history!)

Having read your blog, I am double-blown away by the remark about baptism entry for Constance, as Hursley is literally 5 minutes away from my present location!

Do you know which Church it was? Not sure how old the present Church is, I will try to find out.

Hi Shelly: Your connection with Southampton and living near Hursley is amazing! That is a good question about which church. I'm not certain, but looking online it seems like Hursley is a tiny place, so it must be the All Saints Church, which has records going back to 1600. It does seem, though, that much of the church has been rebuilt. Here's one link about it: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42018

I too am a descendant of Nicholas and Constance. In fact my mother's maiden name is Snow, she is the end of this snow line and her name happens to be Constance. We know the direct line, however need to document to continue it officially. This is on my bucket list. Hoping to learn lots more. Thanks for the blog.Deb

Hi. I am David C Jean, 9th and last child of Shirley Irlene Snow, one of two daughters of Chester C Snow and Laura G Dunphy of New England. Other daughter being Laura. We are descendants of Nicholas Snow who married Constance Hopkins.

Hi! I just recently discovered my Mayflower Hopkins ancestry through the Snow line! I'm descended from John Snow and Mary Smalley through their daughter Hannah R. and Hezekiah Doane. I'm an O'Neal way down in Georgia, and I learned that a small portion of my DNA matches with a Snow, too

I descended from John B. Snow as well. Then Isaac, William, John, Samuel B., Owen Davis, John Franklin, then my grandmother Mary Jane Snow who married Robert Shirkey. This is awesome finding out so much about my ancestry.

About Me

I'm a Massachusetts native, a wife, mother of three and a genealogy nut. I work at a Senior Center planning activities and trips. My other loves include crafting, home decorating, reading, my three rescue dogs, and the Red Sox and the Boston Bruins. Email: Please contact me at: tessiecami(at)gmail(dot)com. If you're not a computerized robot, you'll know where to put the "at" sign and "dot." Thank you!